Hands and house

Friday, June 19, 2009

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on Fed Ex's understanding...

Well...here we are, our LOA is officially lost somewhere in Memphis and Fed Ex has told me that it is, "not worth the bother" to try to find it. Our adoption agency had asked Fed Ex to find the package and then to re-route it to their contact in China so that it could be turned in with the others so that it would for sure be "batched" with that group. Now ours will probably be turned in by itself and the timing of our travel will be a bit unknown.

I have no doubt that the Lord knows exactly when we are to meet our sweet Mei-Mei. There are so many variables that we cannot see, Georgia's health, safety of travel and who the Cardio team will be for her surgery. All of these factors are affected by when we travel. So, could you pray with us for the Lord's will to be done in our travel and with this crazy lost LOA? and also pray that we have the strength to keep trusting in His promises?

I have to tell a story from the women's retreat that I went to last weekend. The speaker was talking about how Jesus "switches the prices tags" on what is important in our lives. "Blessed are the poor in spirit","Blessed are those who mourn," "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" and on and one. Earlier in the talk she had each of us write on a tiny sticky note something that felt "out of control or out of our control", I put in great big letter CHINA!!!!, among other things...well near the end of the talk, after she had explained about switching the price tags, she handed out a tiny gift box to each person. Each box had a little bow ontop and we were told not to look inside. Then she had us fold up our sticky note and place it in the box ontop of the little piece of cotton that was in it. And she said, "what if the Lord switched the price tags? What if what we feel is most painful, most out of control is actually a gift?" You see, she explained that in the South, the trees that survive the hurricanes are the ones that have gone through a drought. The ones whose roots had to be forced deep to find water. It is when I am forced to deeply trust in God that I can withstand the storms of life.
Well, after slipping our sticky notes inside she said that there was something beside our notes in the box. I looked under the cotton and there was a verse. She said that the women's ministry at her church had made the boxes and had prayerd over each one before choosing the verse for it. I will leave you with the verse I found inside:

"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
Psalm 121:5-8

7 comments:

Ok Shannon.....I am in complete tears right now!! Thank you for posting that. I NEEDED THAT RIGHT NOW!!! I am SO sorry about FEDEX and your LOA! I pray that God's almighty hands delivers it in only a way that He can!!

Praying for your LOA to be found quickly, praying for Fed Ex to understand the urgency, praying for you and your husband as you wait to hear if they have found it, and most of all, praying for sweet Georgia to stay strong and healthy until you can get your arms around her!

Shannon, I sent you an email. My feeling of what I am to say to you is look for open doors. God is working while you are waiting, but He may be opening doors while closing others. Be open to His leading and do not rely on your instincts but on His prompting. I know you have lots of things swirling in your head. I wish I could go to Memphis and help the lady look. I would if they'd let me and DH was home!!!

Shannon,When our RA arrived last year for the adoption of Lu Ai, it arrived the same day as the update on her. We saw from the pictures that there was something wrong and so we began to inquire from the orphanage. We did not sign our RA nor was it sent with the others. In fact it was almost two weeks later when it arrived in China. Our TA arrived exactly one week after the others in our group and we were able to travel at the same time. I hope that this encourages you that if God wants you to be with your group, He will do it in such a way that He is glorified yet again. It seems to me like God is allowing this to get as difficult as possible so that HE will receive so much glory!! He is at this time, building a platform for others to see just what kind of God we serve!!!!